CITY ATTORNEY CUTS DOUBTED BY COUNCIL

San Diego 
Mayor Bob Filner’s proposed cuts to City Attorney Jan Goldsmith’s budget drew skepticism Wednesday from City Council members who appear unlikely to adopt the plan.

The mayor has called for slashing $1.4 million from the city attorney’s $43.6 million budget in an overall budget plan that is devoid of any other significant cuts. Filner and Goldsmith have sparred publicly for months, and several council members questioned the motive behind and explanation for the cuts during a budget hearing.

“We can’t skimp when it comes to legal advice,” said council President Todd Gloria. “If we do that, it will cost the taxpayers more in the long run, and I don’t think that’s something we want to do. I think that it’s also true that when you look at a budget proposal that has $15 million in proposed new expenditures … you have to wonder why this reduction is being asked for.”

No final decisions were made at Wednesday’s hearing, but none of the council members expressed support for the cuts. Much of the discussion revolved around whether Filner was specifically targeting individuals in the City Attorney’s Office to be fired — an accusation the mayor says is untrue.

The Mayor’s Office has said financial managers selected 13 full-time positions to be eliminated to reach the target of $1.4 million in cuts, but the final decision on how that reduction is implemented rests with Goldsmith.

The position of Executive Assistant City Attorney Andrew Jones, Goldsmith’s second-in-command, was on the list. He said publicly that he feels he was targeted for standing up to what he described as Filner’s bullying of his fellow attorneys in closed-door meetings.

Francisco Estrada, Filner’s director of council affairs, reiterated that his boss wasn’t trying to single anyone out.

“The mayor publicly said, and it’s on tape, that he understood that any reductions that would be made to any personnel within the City Attorney’s Office was at the sole discretion of the city attorney,” Estrada said. “He never targeted any individual within the City Attorney’s Office at all.”

Goldsmith defended his office against the cuts by noting that his lawyers have collected tens of millions for city coffers through civil litigation in recent years. Specifically, he cited $40 million through civil prosecutions and a $27 million fire settlement with San Diego Gas & Electric.

Goldsmith said his lawyers take the office’s independence seriously, and he won’t allow them to be pressured by the threat of firing.

“We don’t want lawyers to be under fear that they will make next year’s list of someone else’s point of view as to who must be fired in order to make budget cuts if they don’t fudge their opinions to please that other person,” Goldsmith said.

Filner is pushing for the cuts because he said the City Attorney’s Office budget and 346-member staff have increased since 2009 while significant cuts have been made in every other city department.